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Today, it was announced that Pixar co-founded and President Ed Catmull will retire at the end of 2018, after 50 years in the film industry and at age 73. He will remain an advisor for Pixar through July 2019.

He said “Never in my wildest imagination could I have conceived of the path or the extraordinary people I have worked with over all of these years – the twists and turns, the ups and downs, along with exhilarating passion, talent, and dedication that have led to something extraordinary, something that has an enduring impact in the world.”From the request of George Lucas to bring technology to the film industry, to the vision of Steve Jobs, and the extraordinary freedom provided by Bob Iger, Alan Horn, and Alan Bergman, we continue to dream of stories and ways of making those stories that always surprise. I have the mixed emotions that come with stepping away from a group of people I love, but also with the utmost pride and pleasure that we now have at both Pixar and Disney Animation the most dedicated and imaginative leaders I have worked with.”

Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, said Ed Catmull's impact on the entertainment industry is immeasurable. A pioneer of the intersection of creativity and technology, Ed expanded the possibilities for storytellers along with the expectations of audiences. We're profoundly grateful for his innumerable contributions, ranging from his pivotal, groundbreaking work at Lucasfilm and Pixar to the exceptional leadership he brought to Pixar and Walt Disney Animation over the last 12 years, and we wish him the best in his well-deserved retirement.”

I think it will interesting to see where Pixar will go with both Lasseter and Catmull gone within the next 15 months as well as Pixar’s other founders Alry Ray Smith leaving in 1991 and Steve Jobs’ unfortunate passing in 2011. This will leave them without any of their original pioneers. Also, does anyone think Catmull’s retirement has anything to do with Lasseter’s scandal, considering the timing? (Personally, I think the answer is both that it does seem right to want to retire at 73 years old so this could have been his plan for a long time, but also that he may want to leave since he obviously couldn’t stop Lasseter’s inappropriate actions and doesn’t want people at Pixar to see him that way now that stories have been out for almost a year.)

By the way, does anyone know how to change the text font/size? I don’t know what happened in this post and I can’t find the controls to fix it on the mobile site.

Who knows what happened with the text/font size. I took a look at the HTML and you're right, some of the extra code got stuck with the copy/paste. In any regard, it's fixed now!

Regarding Ed - this isn't too shocking, really. He's 73. He's been there for a long time and in the industry even longer. He has been the dual president for Pixar and Disney since 2006, but as of 2014, each studio has had their own independent president as well. Some of the extra comments on other sites about him retiring because of John as well is crazy talk. It may be a factor in some regard, but I don't think it has much to do with it and more about winding down.

As far as the original pioneers leaving - you're right about many of them, but there are still many folks who have been there since the beginning as well. Bill Reeves has been there a long time and he was involved in the early development of animation software and RenderMan with Ed...and animated with John on Andre and Wally B.

I don't love the idea of Ed leaving because it is more of a crumbling of the original guard and that feels like more of the original Pixar is going away. But, that's the emotional side of my mind - in all reality, I felt it was coming and Jim Morris has been doing a great job from Pixar's perspective for a while now. I think John's exit will be felt more impactfully than Ed's in the short term since he was on the front lines of creativity and Ed was more on the back end. Regardless, someone with that many years of experience and industry knowledge will be a loss for sure — Pixar was lucky to have him at the helm for so many years.

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